USB Drive Application Error/MFT Crash

[tbradshaw]

I'm trying to eliminate possibilities before springing for a new USB thumb drive...

I added some new music to my thumb drive that I use in my '11 Explorer. No problems with it in the past. I've probably added music 5-7 times over 3 years. After this latest installation, the drive seems to crash/reboot MFT with a brief flash of an Application Error warning box. With the drive installed, it crashes about 30 seconds after I start the car. I don't think I did anything drastically different in loading music this time: out of iTunes, music from ripped CDs and purchased from iTunes.

Is anyone aware of any obvious issues that might be causing this? Is there any obvious music source that's proven problematic? Otherwise it's try a new thumb drive.

Thanks.

 

[thefranchise713]

There is a chance the file system on the drive may have been damaged and the device should be reformatted and reloaded.

That being said, flash drives have a finite life to them, both for reasons of quality and the science of the technology--particularly when we talk about actually writing the data.

I would junk the drive and reload the data onto a new drive. They're far too inexpensive these days to do otherwise.

 

[peterk9]

Perhaps there too many files on the drive now for the system to handle. There appears to be a limit as another member found out but that didn't result in the other issues you mentioned. As yhrfranchise713 mentioned, perhaps the problem is with the thumb drive. Easiest way to check that is by using another one to see if the problem persists.

Peter

 

[tbradshaw]

Any idea on a ballpark figure on how many songs MFT can handle? I crept up over 3,000 with the latest additions. Will be trying a new drive soon.

 

[peterk9]

Any idea on a ballpark figure on how many songs MFT can handle? I crept up over 3,000 with the latest additions. Will be trying a new drive soon.

I tried to find the post yesterday but didn't have any luck. I know that when he removed some added songs it worked again. I just did a 'Search' and found a few threads on 'Indexing'. According to these, it is the indexing that takes time and may be the limiting issue.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/index.php?threads/usb-drives-ford-explorer-2015.422113/
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/index.php?threads/ipod-classic-160-14k-songs.384749/

Peter

 

[Lewisra]

You may have a corrupt file amongst the ones you've recently added that's causing the issue when it is indexing the files.

 

[FordIVTteam]

Hi tbradshaw,

thefranchise713, peterk9, and Lewisra provided some great suggestions. I recommend reformatting the drive then add a few songs. Gradually add more songs to see when/if you experience issues. As Lewisra stated, you may have a corrupt file. This may help find that file.

SYNC does not have a specific amount of songs or amount of Gigabytes that can be handled. It indexes the music then builds speech commands. The speech commands are then stored in the voice memory of the SYNC system. SYNC also uses metadata from the audio to display song information (i.e. song title, artist, genre). Incorrect metadata can cause playback issues. It's important to eliminate any redundancy in your media file's metadata. For example: If you have different songs tagged as Rock, Rock Alternative, Classic Rock, etc, it's best to lump all those under the genre Rock to free up memory because SYNC indexes everything.

I hope this explains it for you. Holler if you have any other questions.

Shaay

 

[tbradshaw]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I eliminated the most recent additions as the culprit by putting all that music on a different thumb drive. No problems when installed in the USB slot. I then reformatted the original drive and put only the most recent stuff on it. Again, no problems. I'm in the process of adding the bulk of what I want on back to the drive and will see how that goes.

Secondary, less important, question...I picked up the new Led Zeppelin Complete BBC Sessions CD set. For whatever reason (slight self-thread hijack), they saw fit to not sequence the CDs in the order of the performances. I made an iTunes playlist with all the song in the order they were performed and burned that to a CD. I then dragged the CD contents on to my thumb drive. When I opened it up in MFT, the songs were all back in the jumbled order of the original CDs. I'm assuming this, as Shaay hinted at, has to do with the metadata coming over with the songs. Any ideas on how I can override this?

Thanks, again.

 

[dmuscat]

After long research and contacting the IVT team in Ford, I have found some issues that need to be put out to the public as this is not well know even with the dealerships, seems that Sync MFT can only handle a 4gb memory stick that MUST BE FORMATTED in FAT format. Do not use any other format as that will cause issues with MFT. Also do not leave the USB stick inserted for long periods of time as it causes conflicts within the MFT system. Seems this piece is known in the IVT but not popularized. I had experienced many issues with MFT while I have always left a 16GB USB stick (formatted NTFS) inserted. Always trying to figure them out and many, many MFT resets without resolve. Once I found out about the USB issues and MFT, once I removed the USB stick I had, MFT has been working very, very well also with using a 4gb FAT formatted stick. If Ford would give out these items, many people would not be having issues and trying (with great frustration) to figure them out!